


"Winter is the time for comfort"

by misremembered_constellations



Category: DCU, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, i have no idea what verse this takes place in, i just really like clois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27299890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misremembered_constellations/pseuds/misremembered_constellations
Summary: Clark is still new to The Planet. He gets to know Lois a little better and she learns to let people in a bit.Mostly fluff with a small element of danger.Title is an Edith Sitwell quote.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Kudos: 5





	"Winter is the time for comfort"

**Author's Note:**

> This Lois is a cross between Amy Adams', Erica Durance, and Teri Hatcher if that makes any sense.

_Clack clack clack clack clack clack.  
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh who--thwump! _  
Clark was fiddling frustratedly with his pen until it abruptly flew from his hand onto the desk across from his own.  
Lois arched an eyebrow, the ballpoint pen having landed next to her elbow but said nothing, opting to continue typing. Clark waited patiently until she was done, he knew from experience Lois never let anything slide past her; it was both an admirable trait to see as her writing partner as well as it was taxing when he ran into her when moonlighting as a metropolitan hero.  
Finishing-- _it had to be an email, _Clark absentmindedly pondered, she submitted her article earlier this morning with an awfully smug smile at him as she did so. Lois handed his pen back to him while her other hand deftly packed her things. A phone, familiar small journal, some pens,--cheap things she bought in bulk in office supply stores, she was always losing them or using one to twist her hair up off her neck when her elastics broke--chargers, press badge and a laptop.  
She stood, clearing an empty paper coffee cup into the trash with some crumpled napkins leftover from when they grabbed lunch, “So, what’s got your cornstalk in a twist?”  
Clark scrunched his face and smiled, feeling lighter for the first time in what was probably a few hours.  
Lois rolled her eyes, “That wasn’t an innuendo. C’mon Smallville, what world do you have ending over there?”  
He listened beirfly for sirens or screams of terror for a second, and hearing nothing to cause any superbeing alarm he shrugged, starting to clear his own desk, “None, just a piece I’m working on giving me trouble.”  
Lois gently pulled cascading waves of hair over the shoulder that didn’t have her bag’s strap hanging on it and checked her watch, a casually fluid motion that just about knocked Clark out for some reason.  
“Well, I’m clocking out and have to pick up some things from the store, why don’t you tag along and you can tell me what the problem is. I’m sure we can figure something out.”  
Her tone was casual but Clark noticed she was standing too still for this to be normal Lois behavior. Everyone at the Planet knew Lois was hardly the one to socialize with her colleagues on her own time outside of work functions or undercover work.  
_“It isn’t personal,” she'd said when he was first assigned to be her writing partner, “I just dedicate a lot of my time to work and my time out of here is my own. And private.” _  
But Clark knew that wasn’t true, she came in the office too many days with pre-written, researched, proofed and typed articles, bags under her eyes, lipstick stained coffee cups and strands of hair falling temptingly out of an updo while her heartbeat occasionally stuttered of an undiagnosed caffeine addiction.  
Deep down, based on what he’d gathered from coworkers idly gossiping at the water cooler, Lois was a workaholic and not big on people, simple as that.  
But he was never one to give up the chance to pick Lois’s brain.  
Lois slowly waved a hand, “Earth to Smallville...you still here?”  
Clark started, “Sorry, sorry, uh yeah, I’d lo--that’d be great! Let me get my stuff, I’ll just be a minute.” Lois nodded with a soft smile and started for the elevators, her heels clicking comfortably on the tile.  
He hurriedly tossed his things into his bag haphazardly, and was walking briskly to follow Lois when he practically tripped over Lombard, spilling the sports reporter’s hot coffee all over himself.  
“Fuck Clark! Are you okay?” Lombard rushed to get napkins and patted Clark’s chest down like he was on fire.  
Clark dragged his eyes off the elevator approaching and realized belatedly the coffee was incredibly hot for non-Kryptonians and he hadn’t reacted to the heat in the slightest. “Oh don’t worry about it Lombard, I uh, my shirt’s thicker than it looks. I can hardly feel a thing.”  
Lombard looked unsure until Clark joked, “Besides, I’m headed out so I probably need all the heat I can get. I’ll see you t’morrow,” nodding goodbye before walk-jogging to where Lois was waiting in the elevator with slight impatience.  
She pressed the close doors button as he jogged on, getting an eyeful of his coffee splotched shirt before he could tug on his jacket. “ _Christ _Clark, can’t you do anything without causing a scene?”  
He smiled cheekily, “I’ve been told I can ride an elevator fairly competently.”  
Lois just groaned, tipping her head back bonelessly, “Ugh just watch, today will be the day this old thing stops and I’ll be stuck in it with your bumbling until the fire department shows up.”  
Clark subtly lowered his glasses and examined the cords connected to the machine, he wasn’t an expert by any means but they looked like they were functioning just fine.__ ______

Lois hailed them a cab, settling into the backseat comfortably before turning her attention to Clark, “So what’s the problem, no leads or no precedence for events?”  
He sighed, explaining that he was working on a piece about the working conditions in Luthor warehouses. After beginning his partnership with Lois they’d quickly bonded through their determination to find what other reporters had been forced off via violence or bribes from reporting on the billionaire.  
“I’m worried what I say will be miscategorized as an attack on his person. How am I supposed to keep it objective when he’s made himself the face of his operations? And am I supposed to distance myself from my earlier articles about him or do I accept that I’m the journalist who goes after Luther?”  
Lois tapped her fingernails against the black fabric of her skirt peeking out from underneath the opening of her jacket. “It depends how personally he’s reacted or chosen not to do so to the situations you’re focused on. The important thing is to remember you’re not telling the story you want to hear or read, but what you can glean from your sources and what you find. Sometimes the news isn’t the story we want to hear, but it's the facts we need to be made aware of.”  
Clark nodded, scribbling a hasty to do list for when he got home, deciding to follow up tomorrow with the current as well as the former employees he had contact information for.  
Their cab stopped and Lois fished some crumpled bills out of her bag, telling Clark over her shoulder that he was handling the tip. He handed the driver a ten and asked him to drive safely in the weather.  
Metropolis winter was nothing like winter back in Smallville. Sure it was colder in Smallville, but in the city everyone was in such a rush all the time. Every person on the street became an obstacle to avoid. The drivers made Clark glad he left his truck back home with Ma.  
He jogged to catch up with Lois on the pavement on the way to the supermarket, she dodged people headed the opposite way. He was only half a step behind her when she moved out of the path of a gruff-looking business man talking loudly on the phone. Unfortunately as she did so, the outsole of her heel found itself on black ice.  
Her stride didn’t break but she just about fell headfirst into the concrete support for a corner streetlight. She threw a hand out to break her fall but she didn’t need to. Before she could make contact Clark looped an arm around her waist and lifted her a few inches off the ground as he steered them to a safer area. He set her gently on dry--well, drier--ground, she barely gave herself a moment to collect her balance and shiver before she was tugging him along by the wrist.  
He just smiled and let her pull him, “Miss Lane, has anyone ever told you that you have something of a penchant for getting yourself into danger?”  
She squinted like she was thinking, “You’d be surprised how _infrequently _I hear it in my line of work actually.” She shrugged, “I must be doing something wrong.”  
_I don’t think that’s possible Ms. Lane. _  
Lois sighed almost sensually as he followed her with tense shoulders when they stepped into the brightly lit store. Clark thought about offering her his jacket but knew she wouldn’t take it and would rebuke the offer outright. It was something an intern mentioned during his first week at the Planet; _‘Lois never accepts help’. _It just wasn’t who she was. Though Clark couldn’t see why, _what else were people supposed to do if not help their friends? _  
Clark started, as Lois had grabbed a metal basket and was grabbing leafy greens with the determination of someone who knew how to prepare them.  
“I didn’t know you cooked,” he remarked with a faux casual tone as she bagged some asparagus.  
“Smallville,” her voice was wry and eased Clark’s anxiety that he’d crossed a line, “are you trying to dig for information?”  
He adjusted his glasses as he stalled for an answer and she shoved the basket into his chest, “Because if you are, you have to hold this shit.”  
-  
Apparently Lois does know how to cook. Toasted breads and individual frozen meals, that is.  
“My sister’s moving out and she handles all the home-y stuff, she cooks, cleans, pays the rent on time, _God she’s perfect.” They meandered down the canned food aisle and Lois shopped around for pasta sauce while Clark listened intently.  
“Anyway, she’s moving in with her boyfriend and not only do I have to make myself ‘appealing’ for people looking for a roommate, but she’s worried I couldn’t make it on my own without her. It’s as if she forgot I went to college on my own and survived just fine without her before now.” Lois angrily gestured with the can of pasta sauce until Clark gently took it from her grasp and set it in the basket.  
He set his free hand softly on her shoulder, positive now he’s going too far and she would request a new partner in the next minute after hitting him into next year, “I’m sure you’ll find a roommate in no time, and you don’t have to do anything other than be yourself to impress anyone Lois.”  
She breathed a shaky laugh and he could feel her worries ease, if ever so slightly. “Thanks Clark, I...I really appreciate it.”  
She patted his hand and started walking towards the next aisle, “Now c’mon, I need you to figure out what else was on that list I didn’t make.”_________

The nonexistent list had quite a lot on it. By the time they were done they were each carrying four smushed and crinkling brown bags full of foodstuff. Lois lived just around the corner but Clark didn’t want her to try and carry it all herself up five flights of stairs.  
“Clark, don’t be a hero, just stack your bags on top of mine and I’ll be fine,” Lois argued this from behind a loaf of french bread poking cartoonishly out of a bag.  
“Oh you’d like me to _stack _the bags so you can’t see the guys who pop out of an alley to mug you?” He hefted the bags between his arms and smiled widely at Lois, knowing she couldn’t see him very well. He had faith she’d hear it in his voice, “Besides, I have the heavy ones so if I did as you asked it would crush all your perishables.”  
Lois groaned and set her bags down on the counter of the magazine stand they were loitering in front of, “ _Fine, give me those and then we’ll put the lighter ones on top, and then you can go home.” She flicked her hair out of her face and pulled him by the tie under the cheap cloth awning.  
Clark gave in with a nod, _I wonder if I left and Superman spontaneously came by if she would let him offer a hand, _he mused. He had just handed her his bags when he heard a large automobile suddenly pick up speed, barreling towards where they stood on the pavement._  
He whirled around and moved rapidly to the edge of the curb, extending a hand back to keep Lois from moving any closer, thinking of the best way out of a possible disaster, _messing with a vehicle’s momentum could be dangerous, I won’t be able to push it away without it hitting someone else and risking getting them hurt, _thinking up excuses that Lois would buy while waiting for the impact to strike him in the chest when--  
_WHOOSH! _A mixed wave made up of melted slush and rainwater doused him from head to toe. He blinked in surprise as the truck rounded the corner and kept going until it quickly vanished out of sight.  
He breathed deeply and let the tension ease off of his shoulders, _no one was hurt, and I didn’t have to explain away my abilities, there’s nothing to worry about for the next few minutes but how wet my clothes are. _  
Clark turned around to where Lois stood frozen, her mouth opened in a horrified _O _as she took in his dripping form.  
He crossed his arms, “I believe after taking the hit of dirty taxi splash for you, the least you can do is let me help you home.”  
Lois smothered a smile and agreed he could carry the bags left on the counter.____________


End file.
